CHAPTEK X 



IN DAYS OF POVEETY FATHER AND SON DANIEL BOONE 



THE poverty of Audubon in the middle period of his 

 life, when he was nearly completing his collections, was that 

 of a martyr to science. He had a true wife and true hearts 

 in his boys. 



" The world deemed me mad," he said, " but my family 

 believed in me." 



Mrs. Audubon wished him to go to London, to study 

 the use of oils in making perfect his paintings. To help 

 him, she opened a school. After a struggle it became suc- 

 cessful, and brought to her a large income. This she 

 offered to her husband: his interests were her interests; his 

 life her life. 



But Victor Audubon, his son who had traveled with 

 his father, slept with him in the open, ate with him 

 from the bushes, and secured game for him, while he be- 

 came lost in study of some new bird was a boy indeed 

 worthy of such a grand parent. He went into a store 

 at Louisville for a time, desiring, like his mother, to 

 make his father's noble work as easy and as perfect as 



possible. 



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